Cali, Colombia/Sydney, Monday 21 October 2024 – While governments begin talks at the UN Biodiversity COP16 in Cali, Colombia, a Greenpeace International report released today warns that at the current rate of progress, the 30×30 ocean target, agreed by all governments – including Australia – at the previous biodiversity COP15, won’t be achieved at sea until 2107.[1]

The report, ‘From commitment to action: Achieving the 30×30 target through the Global Ocean Treaty’, details progress made so far towards the global goal and sets out the key obstacles preventing faster progress. The findings are damning: almost nothing has been done since the target was agreed.

Despite Australia’s recent expansion of domestic marine parks, only 22% of Australia’s waters are fully protected from destructive activities like commercial fishing and mining – a far cry from the 52% claimed by the government, and the 30% needed by 2030.

Violette Snow, senior campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “The outlook in this report is grim. We are six years from the end of 2030, but at the current rate, we won’t hit 30% protection at sea until next century. While the ocean and climate crises are worsening, the Australian government has been dragging its heels on ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty, to which it is a signatory, and attempting to fluff up its ocean protection credentials with misleading claims about Australia’s marine protection.”

Greenpeace identified the South Tasman Sea and Lord Howe Rise regions, between Australia and New Zealand, as one of the three global priority high seas areas for protection under the 30×30 framework.

“Australia must step up and walk the talk of true ocean protection by supporting an ocean sanctuary in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, before the federal election,” Snow said.

The report highlights Australia’s regression in ocean protection in 2018 after many highly protected marine parks were downgraded, allowing for industrial fishing, shipping, mining, and dredging. 

The report also shows it would require more than 10 (10.14) marine protected areas (MPAs) the size of Australia to be established between now and 2030 to reach 30% of global ocean protection.

Key findings from the report include:

  • In the 32 years since the Rio Earth Summit, where the Convention for Biological Diversity was established, only 8.4% of the global ocean has been protected within MPAs.
  • Without high seas MPAs 83% of all national waters would need to be protected to hit the 30×30 goal.
  • 2.7% of the global ocean is currently fully or highly protected from human activities, and the figure is just 0.9% for areas of the high seas, which are beyond national jurisdiction.

Snow added: “The level of protection determines the success of a marine park, so new sanctuaries must be fully or highly protected to be effective. Australia expanded the Macquarie Island Marine Park this year, so we know quality protection can be done. We need highly protected ocean sanctuaries in the high seas, giving marine life and the underwater environment a place to recover and thrive, untouchable by extractive industries.”

The UN biodiversity COP16 is a crucial moment to stop biodiversity loss. Greenpeace expects that parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to make significant progress in relation to the identification of areas of high conservation value, known as EBSAs, while fully taking into account the interests and rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. [2]

—ENDS—

Notes:

[1] Two years ago, during the UN Biodiversity COP15, states agreed on a target of protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 (30×30), a figure supported by scientists for several years.

[2] CBD decisions on EBSAs will have a crucial impact on the ability of the international community to meet its obligations to protect 30% of the world ocean by 2030 under the Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) and on the successful and swift implementation of the new Global Ocean Treaty as soon as it enters into force.

High res images and footage of Australia’s oceans can be found here.